


and again

by sssssssim



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 14:21:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8164943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sssssssim/pseuds/sssssssim
Summary: At the beginning of their sixth year at Hogwarts, Hermione does something foolish. Even though she knows who Draco Malfoy is working for, she shows him kindness. This is a story of what would have happened if Draco would have switched sides while Harry was struggling with the half-blood prince.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this using what I remembered from the sixth movie. Then I wrote while watching the next two. It's a lot more angsty than the fic I posted before. Oops.  
> (I feel like I need to read the books again with Dramione goggles on.)

 

Hermione enjoyed her classes. This was something everyone knew, it was no surprise. Hermione even enjoyed this particular class, Potions. It was different, with Slughorn instead of Snape, but Hermione was glad that their current professor still held the class as it should be, the students still learned a lot and the fact that Slughorn made it a competition, giving them presents sometimes, that actually helped.

However, Hermione didn’t like this particular class. They were supposed to make a fairly difficult potion, a liquid version of the _Imperius_ curse, somewhat tamer. It made the person who drank it very susceptible to orders, but small ones, Slughorn explained. You couldn’t make the drinker kill someone, but you could make him shine your shoes.

Normally, Hermione would be interested in class, trying her damnest to make her potion. However, Slughorn insisted they’d work in teams of two. And the old mad-hat paired her with Draco Malfoy.

Hermione was equally angry and curious.

Malfoy was how he usually was, rude and hurtful, throwing slurs and words that carved themselves straight into Hermione’s heart. She didn’t stand for it, though, giving back as good as she got.

But she was also curious, because Malfoy was acting weird. Since the end of the summer, when they saw him in Diagon and Nocturn Alley, he was … different. Harry was obsessed with finding up what was Malfoy’s deal, so Hermione kept an eye on him.

She saw him detaching himself from Crabbe and Goyle, pushing Pansy away sometimes even physically, she saw him during class, slipping into somewhat of a catatonic state, looking to a fixed point for minutes on end, unmoving.  She saw the dark circles under his eyes, the way his nails were bitten down to flesh. She saw him flinch when someone touched his left forearm. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening.

But despite all this, Malfoy was still Malfoy.

‘Come on, mudblood’, he was saying now, ‘use that big brain of yours to figure out why our potion isn’t the color it’s supposed to.’

‘You filthy excuse for a human being’, Hermione all but exploded, startling him. ‘You keep using that-‘

‘That’s it!’, Slughorn yelled, startling them both. He made his way to their table, boldly grabbing a hold of their robes and dragging them away.

‘I’ve had it with the two of you. Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, you are the best students in this class, the best at Potions in all the students I am currently teaching and you are throwing it all away because of your stupid, infantile anger!’

‘It is not infantile!’, Malfoy said, but Slughorn shut him up.

Then he threw Malfoy into the cabinet where ingredients were stocked. And then Slughorn threw Hermione in as well.

She was too shocked to say anything, staring at the professor, not really understanding what was happening.

‘You two are staying here until you calm yourselves down and reach an understanding, at the very least. I will not have you throw away this class because of… disappointing reasons!’, Slughorn said, oddly angry.

He shut the door with a bang, straight in Hermione’s face. As she reached for the door handle, she heard Slughorn say a series of very powerful spells and charms to magically seal the door. Hermione knew it wouldn’t open with _alohomora_.

She opened her mouth, trying to apologize and bargain with the professor, but Slughorn also casted a silencing charm.

Hermione swore under her breath, her anger spiking up, before turning to Malfoy, intending to rip him a new one.

But she stopped when she laid eyes on him. Malfoy had his back pressed against a shelf, he was shivering something violent, his face was pale, there was sweat pooling on his forehead and his breathing was erratic.

He tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t seem like it helped. Malfoy tried it again and again, unsuccessfully.

When Hermione realized what was happening, she slowly made her way to Malfoy’s side, until they were standing one in front of the other.

She tried calling his name, but Malfoy was unresponsive, still gasping for breaths. There were tears on his face now, and he looked… terrified. It was unnatural.

Hermione reached for his hand, and Malfoy flinched horribly, but she didn’t let go. Instead she pressed the palm of his hand to her chest.

‘Breathe with me’, she said with authority, finally making him look up at her. He didn’t look away.

Hermione took a deep breath. ‘Try to synchronize your breathing to mine. Slow and easy.’

She exaggerated her breathing, trying to make him calm down. She also looked straight into his eyes, because that’s what he was doing as well.

It seemed to be working, because after a couple of short minutes, Malfoy’s breathing seemed to go back to normal. He took one final deep breath and took his hand away from her chest, but didn’t look away.

‘What was that?’, he breathed out, his whisper echoed in the otherwise silent room.

‘A panic attack’, Hermione said.

‘I don’t have panic attacks’, he was suddenly angry.

It made Hermione sigh. ‘You just did.’

She shook her head and looking at him, made a decision. A foolish one, a stupid one, one that will make Harry and Ron yell at her, but Hermione did it, nonetheless.

Malfoy was startled when she grabbed his face with both of her hands, and he stared at her with wide eyes, but in surprise, not anger. He didn’t push her away, he didn’t fight her, he didn’t hex her.

‘Listen to me’, Hermione started. ‘Because I am only going to say this once and I am certain I am the only person who is going to tell you this.’

She locked eyes with him, light gray seeping cold into warm brown.

‘You look like hell’, Hermione said softly. ‘Your clothes may be perfectly ironed and your hair is thoroughly gelled every day, but you have never been this thin and the bruises under your eyes give me the impression that you haven’t slept in years. You’re shaking, now, even though you’re not having a panic attack anymore.’

‘Something is eating at you, and it’s not that complicated to figure out what.’

Boldly, she moved one of her hands from his cheek to his left arm. He gasped and jerked away, but Hermione kept her hold on him.

‘I don’t know what’s going on with you, what you’re doing, even though I want to. I want you to tell me, so that I can bash your head in and then _help you_.’ He took a shaky breath at that, and looked back into her eyes.

‘You’re killing yourself and it’s horrible to watch. Whatever Voldermort has you doing, it’s not worth killing yourself over it.’

‘You don’t-‘, he started, but Hermione cut him off.

‘Understand. I don’t understand, of course. And it’s incredibly hypocritical of me to tell you this, because we’re all heading there’, she laughed, a bit brokenly. ‘But I’m going to get killed fighting _against_ him. What you’re doing… You’re better than this, Malfoy.’

She grabbed his face again, with both of her hands, running them down to his neck. Her thumbs were on his jaw and he was freezing, shaking slightly under her touch.

‘You screwed up’, she whispered. ‘But it’s not too late to fix it. You’re never going to tell me, I know that. But get help. There are people who will _always_ be willing to help you. Go to Snape. Go to your mother. Go to Dumbledore. This isn’t… Voldermort is not worth dying over, not like this.’

He closed his eyes, taking another shaking breath. Hermione took a deep one and let go of him, stepping back and putting some space between them.

She waited in silence for a couple of minutes. It hurt her, seeing him like this, because Draco Malfoy had a lot of potential, and Voldermort was washing it all away.

He kept his eyes closed, but Hermione saw that he was calming down.

‘Did you pull yourself together?’, she asked in a straight tone.

Malfoy straightened his back, and wiped his hands down his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Hermione cut him off.

‘Don’t bother.’

With that, she turned around and angled her wand to the door know, saying a spell that she hadn’t ever tried before. Of course, it worked, and the door blew open with a spark.

She walked out of the room with her head held high, staring Slughorn down. The professor looked shocked.

‘Ten points to Gryffindor’, Hermione said strongly. ‘For knowing the spell to counteract everything you did to trap us in there.’

‘Yes’, Slughorn said with uncertainty. ‘Yes, of course. Ten points to Gryffindor.’

‘We do apologize, Professor’, Hermione said next. ‘We acted foolishly and we were wrong.’

She turned a pointed look to Draco, who nodded.

‘It won’t happen again’, he said, staring at Hermione.

‘Right’, Hermione nodded. ‘But I have to say, I’m disappointed, Professor’, she said next, clearly startling everyone. ‘Granted, we were acting like idiots, but I expected you to think of a better punishment for us, that wouldn’t involve us missing class.’

Slughorn narrowed his eyes. ‘I’ll be sure not to make that mistake again, Miss Granger. Now get back to work.’

That is exactly what they did. Malfoy didn’t look at her once again during the class, but he never called her any slur words either. Their potion turned out perfect, but they didn’t win Slughorn’s gift, because they weren’t the first to finish.

As Hermione was gathering her things at the end of class, Nott whistled as he passed by her.

‘Enjoyed your 7 minutes in Heaven with Malfoy, Granger?’

She tensed instantly, and felt Harry and Ron making their way to her side.

‘Drop it’, Malfoy appeared out of nowhere, grabbing at Nott’s robes and pulling him away.

After they were gone, Hermione turned to her friends who were both, of course, staring at her.

‘What the hell happened in there?’, Ron asked.

‘What did you do?’, Harry added.

Hermione snorted. ‘Nothing and nothing. It doesn’t matter.’

And it didn’t, she tried to will herself to believe it. It didn’t matter. Draco Malfoy didn’t matter, not to her.

He mattered to the war, of course, but…

But.

Hermione shook her head and smiled at the boys, making their way to the next class.

⃝

There was a lot going on. Class and homework, NEWTs, Slughorn and his club, Harry and his lessons with Dumbledore, Harry’s weird Potions book, Katie cursed because of a necklace, Ron being a stupid boy.

And there was Malfoy, always at the edge of Hermione’s vision. He was getting worse with every passing day, and it concerned Hermione, of course it did, because she realized what it meant, that Voldermort was planning something. But Hermione also found herself concerned _for_ Malfoy.

Which she knew was an idiotic thought. There was no reason for Draco Malfoy to be in her thoughts in this manner. She tried to ignore it.

It was exhausting.

Everything was exhausting, Hermione was exhausted.

And then Ron started dating Lavender.

And then Ron drunk a love potion and almost died. Harry saved him, after Slughorn almost killed him. Another attempt at Dumbledore’s life.

Hermione was exhausted.

And then Harry found out that Malfoy was doing something in the Room of Requirement, but they were unsuccessful in finding out what.

And then Ron told Hermione that he loved her, but he couldn’t see himself being her boyfriend. Surprisingly, Hermione wasn’t as hurt as she thought she would be.

Hermione was exhausted.

And then, they went into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to see a podium, like the one they used during Dueling Club.

‘Oh no’, Hermione breathed out. ‘Not again.’

‘Let’s start easily, shall we?’, Snape said. ‘Granger and Potter.’

Hermione was exhausted.

But Harry was smiling at her, excited and playful. Hermione giggled, despite herself, and Snape snapped at them to get into position.

Hermione saw the challenge in Harry’s eyes. So she locked eyes with him, and mimed closing a zipper over her lips. Harry understood, and winked at her.

And Snape’s signal, they started the duel. Neither of them spoke, using non-verbal spells. It was a pretty equal match, because they have fought before, in the DA, and they both knew how the other one thought.

‘Hermione’, Harry whined after a long while, ‘I’m getting bored here!’

She huffed, annoyed. She also turned Harry’s hair bright pink and put makeup on his face.

Too shocked by that, Harry didn’t deflect her _expelliarmus_.

‘Well’, Snape drawled up, ‘it appears The Chosen One isn’t that much of a threat for a muggle-born.’

Hermione willed herself not to open her mouth, she only glared at Snape.

‘Oh, I don’t know, Professor’, Harry said while getting up from the ground. The pink hair looked horrible with the red lips. ‘It’s quite a privilege to be beaten by Hermione.’

It warmed her heart, and it pissed Snape off.

‘Malfoy!’, he barked. ‘You’re next.’

Hermione wasn’t scared of Malfoy. She should have been, maybe, but she wasn’t, because he looked horrible. He looked like she felt, exhausted to the bone, barely able to stand up.

‘Positions’, Snape said. ‘And this time, speak. This is a teaching exercise.’

Malfoy rolled his eyes, but nodded his approval.

Hermione felt very similar to fighting Harry, because she and Malfoy appeared to be equally matched. But, it became clear early on, that Malfoy’s temper was spiking.

His spells got faster and stronger, it was harder for Hermione to block them, and she didn’t get a lot of chances to throw her own spells.

Malfoy was ruthless and Hermione was exhausted.

He yelled, at one point, a _stupefy_ that Hermione managed to block, but his scream shocked her. The intensity in it, the desperation.

Did he really want to defeat her so badly? Did he really want to _hurt_ her?

Hermione’s thoughts distracted her, and she didn’t manage to block Malfoy’s next attack.

He set her robes on fire, and Hermione didn’t even notice it until there was a sharp pain in her thigh. When she looked down and saw that everything was in flames, it was her turn to scream.

It was over before she managed to stop screaming, and she thought that it was Malfoy who put off the fire, because he still had his wand up. His hand was shaking and he looked as terrified as he looked in the Potions cabinet, all those weeks ago.

Hermione was exhausted and everything hurt more than ever before.

‘Congratulations’, she breathed out. ‘I need to see Madam Pomfrey.’

Harry was at her side in an instant, putting a hand around her waist but taking it away quickly when she yelped on a scream.

‘Potter, go with her’, Snape said. ‘Malfoy, you’re done for the day.’

Hermione managed to make it to the infirmary, with Harry close by but not touching her. She ignored all the awful things he was saying about Malfoy.

She also passed out as soon as she saw Madam Pomfrey’s horrified expression.

⃝

When she woke up, she was covered in bandages. Her clothes and robes were gone, and her entire body was covered in cloths drowsed in salve. Harry and Ron were by her side.

‘You’ll be alright’, Ron said. ‘Madam Pomfrey said the burns will be gone by morning and they won’t scar.’

‘Don’t’, Hermione took a deep breath. ‘Don’t go after him.’

Both Harry’s and Ron’s expression hardened. ‘He deserves it.’

‘Don’t, please’, she insisted. ‘He didn’t mean to.’

Ron snorted. ‘That’s a lie and you know it.’

‘Promise me’, Hermione said strongly. ‘Promise me you’ll stay away from Draco Malfoy.’

‘Why?’, Harry said, studying her intently.

Hermione shook her head. ‘Just do it.’

It took a few beats, but they both nodded. They looked more concerned for her than they were angry at Malfoy, which Hermione thought was a good thing.

‘I had an idea’, she said. ‘Harry, you need to find out the memory Slughorn changed.’

‘I’ll do it, Hermione’, he sighed, annoyed with her constantly bugging him. ‘I just need-‘

‘Some luck’, Hermione said pointedly. ‘You need some _luck_.’

Realization appeared in Harry’s eyes. ‘Oh’, he said. ‘Right.’

‘So you should take Ron’, she went on, ‘and go get lucky.’

‘Huh?’, Ron clearly didn’t understand.

Madam Pomfrey came then and threw the boys out, but not before both of them kissed Hermione’s forehead. She fell asleep quickly after.

⃝

She woke up to Madam Pomfrey gently saying her name.

‘Someone is here to see you’, she said. ‘I don’t know if I should let him in or not, but he’s insisting.’

‘Who?’, Hermione said, and Madam Pomfrey whispered Malfoy’s name.

Hermione only hesitated for a few seconds. ‘It’s alright, Madam Pomfrey. You can let him in.’

She looked dubious.

‘Really’, Hermione sighed. ‘Contrary to what everyone surely believes, he didn’t do this on purpose.’

‘I know that’, Madam Pomfrey snapped. ‘But-‘

‘It’s fine’, Hermione said stronger than she should have. ‘I want to see him.’

That shut the healer up and she nodded once before going away.

There were curtains drawn around Hermione’s bed, but she saw Malfoy’s outline outside, she saw him take a deep breath before pulling the curtains away and taking the few steps needed to get to her bedside.

He didn’t say anything, at first. Instead, he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. It was beautiful, red roses and yellow sunflowers. He put them in a glass on the nightstand, and he pulled out a few boxes of candy from his robes, before sitting down on the chair that was near the bed, bringing it as close as he could.

Malfoy had yet to meet her eye.

‘I’m sorry’, he breathed out shakily, staring at her knees.

‘Don’t’, Hermione said quickly. ‘Don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong.’

He looked up at her, incredulously. ‘I set you on fire.’

‘It was a duel’, Hermione shrugged. ‘You defeated me, fair and square. And they’ll be gone by morning.’

‘What about the pain?’, Malfoy all but spit out. ‘What about _your_ pain?’

That threw Hermione a bit off guard.

‘You didn’t mean to do it.’, she finally said. ‘I know you didn’t.’

‘How could you possibly know that?’, he shook his head.

‘I just do. I… saw it in your eyes.’

That seemed to hit Malfoy, hard. He slumped in the chair, all the fight leaving his body. He started shaking and he looked away from Hermione.

He also put his hands on the bed, crossing them near her hip, leaning his head on them, looking away from her.

‘I don’t want to hurt anybody’, Malfoy whispered, and Hermione struggled to hear him.

‘The first _task_ he gave me’, he went on, to Hermione’s shock. ‘It’s not that bad, but if I succeed, it will be horrible. And the second task is… Granger, it’s…’, he shook, badly. ‘ _Unforgivable_ ’.

She wanted to ask. Oh, she wanted to ask badly. But that was not what he needed right now.

‘Malfoy’, she said slowly. ‘Draco, what are you going to do?’

‘I can’t’, he rasped out. ‘I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it.’

He was looking at her now, desperately. It broke her heart, because this looked nothing like the Draco Malfoy she knew. He was a shell of what he once was, he was broken and…

‘I can help’, Hermione breathed out. ‘Please, just let me help.’

‘I’m desperate’, he admitted, a tear escaping his eyes.

She smiled, despite herself. ‘That’s painfully clear.’

Hermione sobered up. ‘We’ll figure it out. We’ll go to Dumbledore. He’s… understanding.’

Draco broke down at that. He started crying, breathlessly, his body shaking all over. He put his head between his arms and cried. And cried, and cried. Hermione couldn’t do much, didn’t find it in herself to do more than put her hand in Draco’s hair.

He fell asleep eventually. Madam Pomfrey came to check on her, and her shock was somewhat funny. Still, Hermione asked her to let Draco sleep, which was even more shocking for the healer. But Hermione begged, saying that when he wakes up, they’ll both go to speak with the Headmaster. That mellowed Madam Pomfrey down, and she let Draco sleep.

Hermione didn’t close one eye for the rest of the night.

⃝

In the morning, she changed into a set of clothes that Harry and Ron bought her the day before, noticing that all the burns were gone from her body. The skin was still red and sore, but Madam Pomfrey assured her it will be completely fine in a couple of hours.

It was still very early, the castle was asleep. So there was no problem with her walking the halls with Draco beside her. But as they got to Dumbledore’s office, after Hermione said the password, he stopped.

He looked terrified, so small and defeated. Hermione grabbed a hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly.

‘You can do this’.

‘I can’t’, he shook his head.

Hermione smiled at him. ‘I’ll help you do this.’

She didn’t leave him room to argue, before dragging him up the stairs.

Dumbledore seemed surprised to see them, but not as surprised as Harry and Ron were.

Hermione out of the infirmary and in Dumbledore’s office, with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and Draco’s fingers in the other. Harry's and Ron's jaws were on the floor.

She looked to her two friends. ‘Is it done?’

Harry nodded, but didn’t say anything. She turned to Dumbledore.

‘We’re sorry to interrupt, Headmaster, but… Draco has something to tell you. We, uh, we hope you can help us with it.’

‘Us?’, Ron said, incredulously. Everyone ignored him.

‘Mr. Malfoy’, Dumbledore said gently. ‘If there is anything I can help you with, I assure you I’ll do my best.’ There was a pause. ‘Do you wish to speak privately?’, he spared a glance to Harry and Ron.

‘No’, Draco said. ‘They should be here.’

He took a deep breath before letting go of Hermione’s hand, unbuttoning the sleeve of his shirt and lifting it up. She knew that the Dark Mark was there, but it was still a shock to her system to see it.

Harry pulled out his wand and didn’t hesitate in aiming it at Draco. Hermione didn’t hesitate either, in stepping between the two of them, shielding Draco with her body.

Harry looked furious. ‘Hermione, get out of the way!’, he ordered.

‘Don’t be daft, Harry!’, she snapped at him. ‘Lower your wand and hear him out.’

‘Hermione-‘, Harry growled.

‘Please’, she bit out. ‘Trust me and hear him out.’

It took a few seconds, but Harry did lower his wand. He still looked angry, as did Ron, but neither of them said anything.

‘My boy’, Dumbledore sighed. ‘What have you done?’

Draco swallowed hard, and grabbed a hold of Hermione’s fingers again. He didn’t seem to be aware he did it.

‘I did it for my parents’, Draco told Dumbledore. ‘He’s there. He took over our home, and it’s… We couldn’t do anything about it. If I didn’t do this’, he slapped on the Dark Mark, ‘he would have killed them. He would have killed them, and tortured me by letting me live.’

‘Nobody blames you for that’, Dumbledore said gently.

‘Speak for yourself’, Ron all but spitted out.

‘Nobody _smart_ blames you for that’, Hermione said sharply, before glaring at Ron. ‘You would have done the same, because you love your parents just as much as he does.’

Ron looked shocked, to say the least, and Harry had stopped glaring at Draco at some point. Now, he was looking at Hermione, curiously.

‘There’s a cabinet’, Draco went on. ‘In the Room of Requirement. A broken vanishing cabinet. I’m supposed to fix it, and let them in.’

Dumbledore hummed. ‘Are you close to fixing it?’

Draco nodded. ‘And then I’m supposed to-‘, his voice caught. ‘Kill you.’

Harry growled, low in his throat and Ron looked like he was close to taking a swing at Draco.

Hermione was terrified and so very grateful that Draco decided to switch sides.

‘Anything else?’, Dumbledore said easily. ‘This is nothing I haven’t known before.’

Draco’s jaw dropped.

The Headmaster made his way to the fireplace, throwing a bit of floo powder into it. ‘Severus, I need to speak with you. Now.’

Ten seconds later, Snape appeared in the fireplace, making his way into the office before straightening up. His eyes grew wide when he saw Draco.

‘What have you done?’, he asked slowly.

Draco didn’t answer, Hermione knew he wasn’t going to.

So Hermione squeezed his fingers again. ‘He switched sides.’

‘Good’, Snape blinked. ‘That will make it easier for me to look after you.’

‘You shouldn’t have done that’, Draco shook his head.

‘Done what?’, Harry asked.

Snape’s eyes went to him. ‘I made an Unbreakable Vow with his mother. For Draco’s safety.’

‘And it is Draco’s safety that we must consider’, Dumbledore said. ‘We must find the Horcruxes, yes, but we need a new point of attack.’

‘You’re not seriously considering this’, Ron snapped. ‘This could all be a trick that You-Know-Who ordered Malfoy to-‘

‘Horcruxes’, Draco suddenly said, staring at the ground. ‘Of course, that’s…’,he looked up to Dumbledore. ‘He did it, didn’t he? Made Horcruxes to survive?’

Dumbledore nodded, not even surprised that Draco knew what Horcruxes were.

His hold on Hermione’s hand startled her, because she forgot it was there.

‘How many?’

‘Well’, Dumbledore said. ‘Tom Riddle’s diary, which Harry destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets. A ring which I have taken care of’, he lifted his injured hand, ‘Slytherin’s locket, which I am close to getting and, supposedly, something belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw.’

‘There’s something else’, Draco said, hesitantly. ‘In Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault at Gringotts. And … I’m pretty sure Nagini is a Horcrux as well.’

‘The snake?’, Ron wheezed out.

Draco nodded. ‘He’s very… fond of it. And careful, too careful with how deadly the thing is.’

‘We’ll return to this later’, Dumbledore said. ‘For now, we should focus on you, Mr. Malfoy.’

‘What can we do?’, Hermione asked in a whisper.

‘Isn’t that clear?’, Dumbledore said airily. ‘We have to help him succeed in his tasks.’

The silence that followed was deafening. Hermione sat down on the floor, taking Draco down with her, because she wasn’t willing to let go of his hand.

‘We need a plan’, she looked to the two professors. ‘You’, she looked to Harry, ‘need to tell me what a Horcrux _is_ , you’ she turned to Snape, ‘need to tell us if the Death Eaters have told you anything else and you’, she looked to Draco, who was already watching her, ‘you need to take a deep breath, calm down, and then tell us how you plan on fixing the vanishing cabinet.’

‘I must say, Miss Granger’, Dumbledore said fondly before making a low ottoman appear next to her, sitting down on it. ‘I do enjoy when a young woman like you takes the lead.’

Hermione snorted, despite herself. ‘This is not me taking the lead, Headmaster. This is me tired of not knowing everything I have to face.’ She turned to Harry and Ron. ‘Snap out of it and sit down. We have planning to do.’

Harry shook his head, but he also sat down and dragged Ron down with him. Snape huffed, and took a seat next to Dumbledore on his ottoman.

Draco squeezed Hermione’s fingers, and started talking.

⃝

The plan was insane.

At the end of the school year, Draco was supposed to let the Death Eaters into the castle, and he was supposed to hesitate in killing Dumbledore, letting Snape be the one to do it.

They went on with their lives, going to classes and acting like they never spoke with Malfoy. And they did it with knowing that Dumbledore will be _dying_ in a couple of days, that Snape will be the one to kill him, that Harry, Hermione and Ron were supposed to stumble upon the scene and fight the Death Eaters and it was _insane_.

Hermione could barely eat, she almost never slept, she spaced out during classes more than once. She couldn’t look Snape in the eyes, she fought against the instinct to look at Draco every five seconds, she couldn’t handle how _angry_ Harry was.

They were going to do it, they had to. Dumbledore convinced them all that this was the way it was supposed to happen. He was already dying, and this way, his death will mean something, it will help the war. She spent a lot of time crying about that.

Hermione knew that Dumbledore spoke to Draco in private, but there was no way to ask him about what.

And then, on the day before the plan was set to happen, she received a weird letter during breakfast. She didn’t recognize the owl, nobody at her table did.

_Meet me by the Room of Requirement tonight after curfew. If you wish. –DM_

Hermione looked up to the Slytherin table, and Draco was already looking at her. She looked away, but nodded as she pushed the paper into her robes.

⃝

Harry stared at her hard when she asked for the cloak that night.

‘What are you doing?’, he asked, only mildly curious.

‘Draco asked to see me.’

Harry didn’t seem surprised by this. ‘I have to ask’, he shook his head. ‘Is there anything about Malfoy that you haven’t told us? About you and him?’

Hermione understood what he was asking, but she didn’t think that was what was happening.

‘We just don’t understand’, Ron sighed. ‘You’re… this is crazy.’

‘It’s not’, Hermione sighed. ‘We’re helping him and he’s-‘

‘But why?’, Ron interrupted. ‘What on Earth possessed you to want to help him in the first place?’

‘And why did he come to you?’, Harry added.

Hermione steeled herself before explaining, briefly, the two instances in which she spoke to Draco before coming to Dumbledore. She told them what she did in the Potions cabinet, and she told them how Draco broke down in the infirmary.

It was followed by a long silence.

‘So you trust him’, Ron finally said.

Hermione nodded. ‘And you don’t trust me about him, I understand that. But Dumbledore and Snape trust him too. And we’ve _always_ trusted Dumbledore.’

‘Hermione’, Harry said gently, ‘I swear to God, if you fall in love with Malfoy I will personally pull out all of your hair.’

She laughed at that. ‘That’s not what’s happening here, I promise. We don’t have time to think about it either.’

They all nodded at that, and Harry gave her the cloak.

‘Make sure he doesn’t switch sides again’, he said, but Hermione didn’t think that was what Draco wanted to talk about.

⃝

Draco startled badly when Hermione took off the cloak, appearing in front of him.

His shock quickly faded, though, to a look of annoyance. ‘I knew it! Snape told me Harry’s father had a good invisibility cloak, I knew he had it. There was no way you were able to do all that you did without it.’

Hermione just smiled, innocently up at him, before tilting her head to the side.

‘We should go in before anyone sees you.’

Draco nodded, before closing his eyes, thinking about what he needed the room to be. Hermione expected to go into the Room of Requirement at its default: a space to store things, where the vanishing cabinet was shoved in a corner.

That wasn’t what she stepped into. Instead, it was a small room, with simple white walls and a fluffy white carpet. There was a fire place and a dark brown leather couch in front of it.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Draco. He just shrugged and made his way to sit on the couch. She sat on the other side of it, but took off her shoes and crossed her legs on the couch, getting comfortable and facing him.

‘You’re second guessing this’, Hermione deduced, looking at the way Draco was holding himself.

He shook his head. ‘I’m not. I’m just… scared.’

‘We all are’, Hermione said softly.

‘There are so many things that could go wrong.’, Draco went on, staring at the fire.

‘I know. But we’re strong, and our plan is… horrible but smart and-‘

‘I didn’t ask you here for encouragements’, Draco interrupted, finally looking at her.

Hermione blinked. ‘What for, then?’

‘I never thanked you’, Draco smiled a bit. ‘You- no! Let me say this!’, he lifted his voice when she tried to cut him off.

‘Granger, you have done something that nobody has ever done for me. Even if this doesn’t work, even if it fails miserably, I need you to know how grateful I am. You gave me the opportunity to do something _right_ for a change, and it’s… it’s something I will never be able to repay you for.’

Hermione took a few seconds to just acknowledge the way Draco was looking at her. The gratitude in his eyes, the relaxed stance of his shoulders, his fingers on the couch between them, itching closer to her knee, but not touching yet.

‘How about I make you a deal?’, Hermione finally found her words, smiling a bit. ‘I’m not going to even try to convince you there’s nothing you have to repay me for, I know how stubborn you are.’

He narrowed his eyes at that, and pushed his fingers into her knee a bit painfully, but it was still done in good humor.

‘So how about’, Hermione went on, ‘if we survive this, you don’t ever call me _that_ again, and we’ll consider it being even.’

Suddenly, he looked angry. ‘It’s not enough. I am _never_ going to call you that either way. I’m never going to-‘, his breath caught. ‘I’m never hurting you again’, he said strongly. ‘You have my word, whatever it’s worth.’

Hermione nodded at that, and put her hand over his, on her knee.

‘It’s going to be alright.’, she whispered.

‘It’s not’, he whispered back.

‘We’ll get through this.’

Draco let out a shaky breath. ‘I really do hope that. If not, I just hope to die quickly.’

‘No’, Hermione said strongly. ‘You’re not going to die.’

Surprisingly, he smiled at her. ‘And if I die, at least it’ll be fighting against him, not for him.’

They were the words Hermione told him all those months ago, in the Potions cabinet. It made her smile.

‘We should go’, she said next. ‘At least try to get some sleep.’

Draco nodded, and waited patiently for her to put her shoes back on. Once in the hallway, they crowded together under the cloak, bodies touching with every step, but Hermione ignored it as they walked to the dungeons.

Once in front of the portrait, Draco stopped Hermione by grabbing her elbow.

‘We’re invisible under this cloak’, he whispered softly.

‘Yes’, Hermione frowned.

‘Nobody can see us.’

She shook her head.

‘The world outside doesn’t exist under here.’

‘That’s one way to look at it’, she smiled a bit.

‘In that case…’, he took a deep breath and leaned forward.

Hermione was surprised, because it was only an hour ago when she told Harry and Ron that this was not what was happening. And she was very surprised by the fact that she didn’t pull away.

Draco’s lips met the corner of hers, and they stayed there for barely five second before he pulled away. He smiled at her before getting out of the cloak and going into his common room without another word.

Hermione took a deep breath and allowed herself the walk back to the Gryffindor tower to think about the fact that she had just been kissed by Draco Malfoy. After that, she spent the night only thinking about the fact that tomorrow was probably going to be the worst day of her life.

⃝

Dumbledore changed the plan. He took Harry on a Horcrux hunt, promising they will return in time to fight the Death Eaters.

Hermione spent the day stressing over _everything_ with Ron by her side, ignoring the fact that Draco wasn’t there, that he was locked up in the Room of Requirement fixing the cabinet, ignoring the fact that Harry and Dumbledore might not come back, ignoring the way Snape looked at her when he gave her the Portkey and refused to tell her where it went to.

After dinner, Hermione locked eyes with Draco across the Great Hall. He looked away, but he smiled as he made his way out. She knew where he was heading to, so she looked to Snape. He was already watching her, an unreadable expression on his face. Snape got up and went away as well.

She turned to Ron, because Harry still wasn’t back.

‘Show time’, Hermione whispered. Ron grabbed a hold of her hand and didn’t let go until they were in the Astronomy tower, hidden under a set of stairs.

Harry came to them just as Draco met Dumbledore.

‘It’s done’, Draco said, to which Dumbledore nodded.

‘Very well. You’re going to become a very great wizard, Mr. Malfoy.’

Draco laughed at that, as he was crying. ‘How can you possibly say that?’

Dumbledore didn’t get to answer, because there was a giggle resonating in the tower. The Death Eaters appeared, Bellatrix Lestrange leading eight other.

‘Come on, my dearest nephew’, she ran her nails over Draco’s cheek. ‘Do it, don’t delay this. Do it and the Dark Lord will be pleased with you, yes, very pleased.’

‘ _Expelliarmus_!’, Draco shouted, disarming Dumbledore and taking his wand. He let it fall to the floor before aiming his own wand again.

‘Bellatrix’, Dumbledore said. ‘You shouldn’t let Draco do this. He’s still too young to be burdened with this.’

The woman laughed, a sound that hit Hermione at her core. Ron put a hand over her mouth, because she would have whimpered and disclosed their location.

And then Snape was there, and then Dumbledore was dead, falling over the railing and then Harry screamed and ran up.

And the fight began.

Her, Ron and Harry were fighting the Death Eaters. In the corner of her eye, she saw that Snape was dragging Draco away. She roared, sent two _stupefy_ spells one after the other, dealing with the two Death Eaters she was engaged with, and ran to their side.

She tried to fight Snape, as she was supposed to, but he was blocking her every hit. Finally, she got one hit in and Snape stumbled back, as he was supposed to.

Hermione grabbed a hold of Draco’s hand and dragged him away, but they didn’t get far. Bellatrix came after them, and in order for their plan to work, Draco had to seem like he was fighting Hermione. He grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled tightly, making her scream.

‘I’ve got this’, Draco told his aunt, rage clear. ‘She’s mine, you go handle Potter and his sidekick.’

Bellatrix laughed, delighted, and she made to move, but Hermione couldn’t let her do that. So she pushed her elbow into Draco’s stomach, forcing him to let go of her.

‘This isn’t over, you bitch’, Hermione all but spit out at Bellatrix, before reaching with a hand for Draco and another for the Portkey in her pocket.

As the world blurred around her, she heard Bellatrix scream for Draco.

They landed in a heap in the garden of the Burrow.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were waiting, as were Lupin and Tonks with Mad Eye.

‘He’s dead’, Hermione started crying. ‘He’s dead.’

Draco forcefully grabbed a hold of her and pulled her off the ground, hugging her tightly afterwards. She didn’t let the hug last long, pushing him away, noticing that he was also crying.

‘I have to go back’, she whispered, wiping her face.

Mrs. Weasley was there then, a gentle hand on Draco’s shoulder.

‘Go, Hermione’, there were tears in her eyes as well. ‘Draco is safe here.’

She locked eyes with Draco who looked… drained. She couldn’t see fear in his eyes, just exhaustion and immense sadness. But she knew that Mrs. Weasley will take good care of him, so she nodded and apparated in one of the secret passages to Hogwarts, running straight to the base of the Astronomy tower.

All the students were already gathered there, around Dumbledore’s lifeless body. Harry was wrapped around him, crying, Ginny and Ron both trying to detach him.

Hermione made her way to McGonagall’s side, who was clearly in shock.

‘Professor’, she said strongly, making sure everyone around heard. ‘Tonight, Draco Malfoy let Death Eaters inside of Hogwarts, and he tried to kill Dumbledore, by order of Voldermort.’

McGonagall gasped silently, covering her mouth with a hand.

‘He was unsuccessful, so Snape took over his task. He’s the one who killed Dumbledore.’

‘Where is he now?’, McGonagall asked.

‘He split’, Ron said hatefully, ‘with the rest of the Death Eaters.’

‘What about Malfoy?’, asked the teacher.

‘I took him to the Order of the Phoenix’, Hermione said strongly. She then broke down crying and all but collapsed into Ron’s arms.

The plan succeeded and it was even more horrible that she would have thought.

⃝

Hermione started preparing as soon as she got home. She knew that by the end of the summer, she will not be returning to Hogwarts. Instead, she will join Harry and Ron in the hunt for Horcruxes.

She packed everything she could think of into her bag, and a high number of things she thought wouldn’t even help them.

She spent the summer spending as much time with her parents as she could, knowing that soon, she will be forced to erase their memories of her.

She missed her friends, who didn’t even write to her anymore, in fear of letters being tracked.

But Ron was related to Fred and George, so he called Hermione’s landline.

‘I figured they hate muggles too much to think about tracking them down’, he explained and Hermione may have started crying.

‘Look, I can’t talk long’, Ron went on. ‘We’re all good. There’s a plan to take Harry in two weeks, when the protection on the house expires. Bill and Fleur are getting married the day after, by the way, consider this your official invitation.’

Hermione chuckled. ‘Ron’, she said, ‘where’s Draco?’

‘Here, of course.’, he shocked her into silence. ‘He’s locked himself in the basement room and won’t come out no matter how much Mom and Ginny try to convince him. But he’s eating and he’s safe, so…’

Hermione didn’t say anything.

‘When are you coming?’, Ron asked next.

‘Sooner than I thought’, was her prompt response, which made Ron laugh.

‘You know, I was expecting that. So Ginny already set up your bed.’

‘I have something to do first’, Hermione said, thinking of her parents sitting in the garden. ‘But I’ll be there.’

‘Take care, Hermione’, Ron said softly. ‘See you soon.’

Hermione hung up the phone and made her way to her room. She threw a few more clothes into her bag, including a nice red dress for the wedding and matching shoes, a few other toiletries and bits and bobs she used on a daily basis, and then she made her way out to the garden.

Her parents didn’t hear her come out, so they didn’t see her lift her wand.

‘ _Obliviate_ ’.

⃝

She took some time to gather herself together before she apparated to the Burrow, but Ron still saw right through her.

‘What did you do?’, he asked, making Hermione think he suspected something.

‘What I had to’, Hermione said. She explained, eventually, to Ron and Ginny’s horrified looks, but she hugged Hermione and he agreed that it was probably for the best.

Hermione set up in her usual spot in Ginny’s bedroom, caught up with Fred and George, congratulated Ben and Fleur.

As she helped Mrs. Weasley around the kitchen, the woman told her everything she missed. The plan to get Harry out of the Dursley’s house and safe back to the Burrow, the fact that Snape was the new headmaster at Hogwarts and that beside the Order, everybody was sure that this meant Death Eaters at the school. That the Ministry was still standing, but not for long.

Hermione didn’t ask, but Mrs. Weasley answered anyway, leveling her with a look.

‘He tried to write to you, you know. Draco.’

Hermione looked up, surprised.

‘Arthur explained it to him, that communications were probably monitored and everybody needed to think that he was a prisoner.’

‘Oh’, Hermione said. ‘That was nice of him.’

Mrs. Weasley threw her a look. ‘He’s locked himself in the room since then. He only comes out three times a day to get food and thank me for it, really, he’s so polite, that boy... but that’s it. He doesn’t talk to Ron or Ginny, he didn’t even open the door to Fred and George. He asked Arthur for books, anything he could get his hands on, and I’m pretty sure that’s how he spends his days. Reading, all on his own in a room without windows.’

Hermione felt horrible.

‘Maybe he’ll get better now that you’re here.’, Mrs. Weasley said around a smile. ‘From what I’ve seen, he might be inclined to let you be a friend. And he needs that.’

‘What…’, Hermione tried. ‘What happened to his parents?’

‘They’re still alive, as far as we know. Remus managed to speak with Narcissa, assured her that Draco was alive. He offered her sanctuary, but she didn’t take it. Said that it’ll help Draco more if she was by Voldermort’s side. Stopped Remus from even trying to talk with Lucius, said it wasn’t worth bothering.’

‘This is all so… messy’, Hermione breathed out.

‘Yes, well’, Mrs. Weasley tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. ‘Unfortunately, that is war. And you kids are caught in it, no matter how much we try to shield you. So, how about you take some tea down to Draco and catch up?’

Hermione nodded weekly, accepting the tray.

Draco opened the door to the basement with a mildly annoyed expression on his face, but it quickly turned to shock when he saw that it was Hermione.

‘Hi’, she said.

‘You’re not supposed to be here yet.’, he said.

Hermione pushed by him and into the make-shift room, putting the tray on the desk before making her way to the bed. It wasn’t made, so she quickly straightened the comforter over it before sitting down. Draco just kept staring at her.

‘So’, Hermione smiled at him. ‘Mrs. Weasley said you’ve turned into a hermit.’

That snapped him out of it. He rolled his eyes and closed the door, before making his way to the desk. He took the tea mugs and sat down next to Hermione, a safe distance away.

‘I’m not a hermit.’, he said around his cup.

‘Oh so you don’t spend all your days locked up in here, reading and not speaking to anyone?’

He glared at her. ‘It can’t be easy for them, me being here. I’ve tried to make it easier.’

Hermione huffed and slapped him gently on the back of his head.

‘The Weasley’s are the most gentle and caring family I have ever met. Trust me that if you are here, they want you here.’

Draco just shook his head. ‘I find that very hard to believe, considering how my father treated Mr. Weasley since forever.’

‘But that was your father, not you’, Hermione argued.

He just kept shaking his head.

‘Well, you’re never going to believe me if you don’t actually see it for yourself. So how about you come up for dinner tonight? If it doesn’t work, I promise I’ll let you… rot down here.’

‘Fine’, he said after a beat, glaring slightly at her. Then, softly: ‘Why are you here?’

Hermione shrugged. ‘Ron called, told me a bit of what was happening. I was going to come in a week anyway, I just…’.

‘Hey’, Draco frowned at her. ‘You look sad. Why do you look sad?’

The fact that he noticed made her say it. Quickly, far more quickly than she told Ron and Ginny.

‘I obliviated my parents. They’re moving to Australia.’

Draco stared at her, but he didn’t look as horrified as her other friends.

‘You’re not going back to Hogwarts’, he whispered, startling her.

Still, Hermione shook her head.

‘You’re going after Horcruxes. With Harry and Ron.’

‘You can’t tell anyone’, was Hermione’s answer, to which Draco nodded, slowly.

He also got up and went to the other side of the room, where there was a blanket on the ground and a couple of pillows. There were also smile piles of books against the wall, and Draco lowered himself next to them. Hermione followed, pushing their shoulders together. 

‘How are you doing, really?’, she said. 'You look better, but how are you feeling?'

‘I’m worried about Mother’, Draco admitted. ‘But I know there’s nothing I can do about it, and I know that she… doesn’t want me to do anything about it.’

‘I understand that’, Hermione nodded.

Draco bit on his lower lip and looked away before talking again.

‘I’m also a little frustrated, because from what I’ve gathered from Arthur, nobody really has a plan. And I… even if they did, I’m sure they wouldn’t tell me. I can’t blame them for it, but I just wish that… there was something I could do.’

‘They probably think you’ve done enough’, Hermione pointed out.

‘I didn’t’, came the quick response. ‘I need to do more.’

‘I get that’, Hermione sighed, because she would have felt the same if it wasn’t for Harry’s plan to leave.

Ginny barged into the room, then, startling when she saw the two of them on the floor.

‘Isn’t that very cold?’, she frowned.

‘I put a blanket’, Draco raised an eyebrow.

‘Oh, well’, Ginny shrugged. ‘Dinner time, and you’re coming.’, she glared at Draco.

‘Yes he is’, Hermione said, getting up and extending a hand to help Draco up as well.

He took it and grabbed a plaid shirt she knew was Ron's before leaving the basement.

‘Malfoy-Whisperer’, Ginny called her, evidently amused. ‘I bow down to you.’

Hermione snorted.

⃝

Dinner wasn’t as awkward as Hermione thought it would be, not with Draco discussing one book or another with Mrs. Weasley, and not even with Ginny throwing peas into Draco’s plate.

Breakfast wasn’t weird either, nor were lunch and dinner the next day, when Draco joined them.

The next day, he wordlessly joined Hermione on a blanket in the garden, and they spent a couple of hours reading silently side-by-side. He fell asleep with his head on ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’. 

Hermione used that time to really look at him. He did look better, Mrs. Weasley's food was doing wonders for his figure, he looked strong. He was still pale, because he hadn't spent any time outside, but Draco looked healthy. She noticed that his hair was longer, curling at the neck and she noticed how the t-shirt was stretched tightly around his biceps and Hermione didn't look at him anymore.

When Harry’s birthday came along, Draco was frustrated that he wasn’t allowed to go. He understood it, logically, that he needed to lay low, but he still wanted to help.

‘Man’, Ron finally said. ‘Mom and Ginny are going to be here, probably going mental with worry. We need you to keep them sane until we get back.’

‘Damn it’, was Draco’s response, but he nodded in understand and let the subject drop.

And when they came back, Draco was the one who gathered the supplies needed to treat Fred’s injured ear, and he asked if they should let anyone know about Mad Eye's death.

⃝

Breakfast the next morning was a quick thing, because there were still so many preparations for the wedding to be done. Draco helped where he could, even if Mrs. Weasley was the only one actually telling him to do anything.

Everyone was shocked to see the Minister casually making his way towards the house, but it was Hermione’s yell that made Draco run down to the basement.

She was even more shocked when the Minister started reading Dumbledore’s will. She got a fairytale book, Ron got a fancy light switch, Harry got his first snitch and Godric Gryffindor’s sword.

The will also stated that Dumbledore left something for ‘Miss Granger’s most unlikely friend’, a broom. It wasn’t anything special, just a Nimbus 2000, it even had some visible wear. But when Hermione touched it, she felt a shiver traveling from her fingers to her spine. It was powerful, but she didn’t know _what_ it was.

Of course, the Minister asked who Hermione’s friend was. She didn’t say.

When it was time for everyone to start getting ready for the wedding, Mrs. Weasley sighed at Draco.

‘I’m so sorry that you won’t be able to join us.’

Draco snorted. ‘With all due respect, ma’am, I am incredibly grateful for everything that you’ve done for me, but let’s not push it. Enjoy your night.’

He left without another word, and Mrs. Weasley leveled Hermione with a look.

‘Make sure he sees your dress.’

‘Whatever for?’, she spluttered.

‘Because he wants to.’

Hermione didn’t have any answer to that. But it didn’t stop her, from knocking on the basement door before the ceremony was set to begin.

‘Oh’, Draco’s eyes were wide. ‘You actually look good in Gryffindor colors.’

She smiled at that, blushing only slightly. ‘I just wanted to make sure you were settled in for the night.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Sure. Same as every night, really.’

Hermione huffed and reached into her bag, ruffling around it for some time. Draco didn’t comment on the fact that the bag’s interior was obviously bigger than it should have been, but he did seem slightly impressed.

She finally found what she was looking for, and gave Draco her copy of _The Wizard of Oz_.

‘Muggle story’, she explained. ‘It’s quite… magical. And my favorite.’

He snorted at that, but took the book.

‘You look wonderful’, Draco said, looking straight into her eyes. ‘Now please forget about me and go have some fun for a change.’

‘I’ll see you in the morning.’, Hermione nodded.

She saw him much sooner than that.

⃝

When the message arrived, everyone gasped. When the Death Eaters got there, everything turned into chaos.

Hermione managed to get to Ron, and they both saw Harry run to Ginny. He tried to, at least, but then Lupin was there, pushing Harry towards them, ordering them to run.

She opened her mouth intent on saying a name, but Draco had already gotten there.

‘Where?’, he asked Hermione, while still moving to Harry. He grabbed the other boy’s hand and Ron grabbed hers.

‘Shaftsbury Avenue’, was what came out of Hermione’s mouth.

Draco nodded strongly and then he and Harry disappeared. Hermione locked eyes with Ginny across the room, and the younger girl nodded at her, smiling shakily. Hermione took a deep breath and squeezing Ron’s fingers tightly, they were off.

It didn’t take long for them to meet back up with Harry and Draco, and Hermione led them to a small alley, stating that they needed to change.

‘Undetectable Extension Charm’, she explained upon seeing the boy’s bewildered expression.

‘You’re amazing, you are’, Ron said, managing to make Hermione smile.

‘That still surprises you?’, Draco muttered, but nobody answered him.

And then, it was Draco’s turn to look surprised when Hermione handed him clothes.

‘Boys’, she muttered. ‘Never taking stock of their clothes.’

They changed quickly and found an empty coffee shop and she ordered a cappuccino, knowing she’ll need the caffeine. The boys were all frowning, as they ordered the same as her, and Hermione wanted to laugh, really she did, but she didn’t have the strength.

Ron started talking about where they should go. About how now that the Ministry has been taken over, none of the old places of the Order were safe. Harry stopped, at one point in the conversation, and turned to Draco.

‘Are you coming?’

The look Draco had in his eyes was something Hermione hasn’t seen in a long while. It was something strong and determined, a challenge in his eyes and anger around his mouth.

‘Yes, Potter. I am.’

‘It’ll be dangerous’, Harry pointed out.

‘Obviously’, Draco rolled his eyes, before hesitating for a second. ‘I’m in the same pot as you, in the sense that I… _need_ to do something. I can’t just stand back and watch the world burn.’

Ron snorted. ‘Didn’t stop you before.’

‘That was before’, Draco snapped. ‘It’s different now.’

‘Yeah, you are’, Harry sighed after a beat, and Hermione knew it was all the acceptance Draco was going to get.

‘My rucksack with all my things, I’ve left it at the Burrow’, Harry said next, sighing deeply.

Hermione couldn’t help but purse her lips. She also shook her head, slowly.

‘She’s been packing all week’, Draco pointed out.

‘I’ve been packing all summer’, Hermione admitted.

Harry wanted to say something, but his eyes grew wide, looking at the two men who came into the coffee shop. And then Draco was pushing Hermione off the chair and to the ground, and there were spells flying over their heads.

With a deep breath, they both took cover under a table and started fighting.

‘This one’s Rowe’, Harry pointed to one of the two unconscious men. ‘He was on the Astronomy Tower when … Dumbledore died.’

‘He also likes little girls with blonde hair’, Draco said in a very small voice.

‘And this one’s Dolohov’, Ron looked to the other man. ‘I recognize him from the wanted posters. What are we going to do with them, eh? They’d kill us if we’d turn around.’

‘We can’t kill them’, Draco said, making everyone turn to look at him. ‘They’re not worth getting blood on our hands. Not like this.’

Ron tried to argue, but Harry suggested they’d wipe their memories.

‘Hermione’, Ron said gently. ‘You’re the best as spells.’

She took a step forward, but Draco stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

He shook his head. ‘You’ve done enough of that for a lifetime. Let me.’

Hermione nodded shakily, and let Draco _obliviate_ the two Death Eaters. Harry was watching her with a frown, so she told him, briefly, about her parents.

‘Damn it’, Harry breathed out.

‘I know’, Hermione whispered, before straightening her back and getting the hell out of that coffee shop.

They started walking down the street, no place set in mind. Hermione remembered about Harry’s birthday, but he brushed it off quickly.

‘You can bake another cake when Voldermort’s dead’, Draco piped up.

Of course, everyone started at him again. ‘What?’, he blinked.

‘It’s weird hearing you talk like that’, Ron said.

Draco shrugged. ‘Better get used to it, Weasley.’

Hermione started walking again.

⃝

When they got in front of 12 Grimmauld Place, Draco whistled low under his breath.

‘This belongs to the Black’s.’

‘It did’, Harry said after a beat. ‘When Sirius died, he left it to me. How do you know about it?’

Draco turned to look, incredulously, at Harry. ‘My mother told me about it.’

It was obvious Harry didn’t understand.

‘Did you not see the family tree?’

Harry nodded at that, but he still looked confused.

‘Father has one in his office’, Draco said next. ‘And Mother told me stories about this place, from when she was a child.’

‘Bellatrix is Sirius’ cousin’, Hermione told Harry, to which he nodded.

‘So is my mother’, Draco said. ‘She and Bellatrix are sister.’

‘How did we not know that?’, Ron blinked rapidly.

‘It wasn’t something of interest to you, was it?’, Draco drawled out, before shaking his head. ‘Am I going to get hexed if I walk in? Being a Slytherin and a Malfoy, and all?’

‘Probably not’, Hermione said. ‘Being a Slytherin is actually a good thing in this place. And, well, you are family.’

‘Right’, Harry said, shaking his head. ‘Come on.’

They went to sleep quickly, but only after making sure the house was empty. Hermione was more exhausted than she thought, because she fell asleep while the boys were still arguing over who took the remaining couch.

She woke up drowsy, to Draco gently shaking her awake.

Ron had found something, R.A.B.’s room, and then Harry pulled out the fake Slytherin locket and they started talking.

‘Guys’, Draco interrupted Harry in the middle of a word. ‘Doesn’t this house have an elf?’

‘Oh’, Hermione blinked, just as they heard a noise from a cupboard.

Harry was stern in dealing with Kreacher, but that didn’t stop him from calling Hermione a mudblood and Ron a traitor.

‘Shut up!’, Draco’s loud voice boomed, alerting Kreacher of his presence.

‘A Malfoy’, he said, somewhat delighted. ‘Cousin to the Black’s, a true Slytherin finally at home!’

Draco rolled his eyes at that, but he also made his way to Harry’s side, taking the locket from him.

‘Granger asked you a question’, Draco said slowly. ‘Why don’t you do me a favor and answer her?’

Kreacher scrunched up his nose, but he did answer. Hermione sighed when they found out the locked couldn’t have been destroyed, and her frustration only grew when they found out Mundungus Fletcher had it.

‘Find him’, Draco ordered, to which Kreacher all but spat in his face.

‘You are not my master!’

‘No, I am’, Harry said. ‘The house was left by Sirius to me. Now go and find Fletcher!’

After the elf disappeared, Harry looked to Draco.

‘Thanks.’

Draco just shook his head. ‘I know you all have sensitivities about the elves’, he said this looking at Hermione, ‘but some of them really are nothing but filth.’

‘Is that what you thought of Dobby?’, Ron said coldly.

Again, Draco looked at Hermione, and he smiled, a bit.

‘That would have been a hard thing to do, considering I’ve known Dobby all my life and for the longest of time, he was the only one I got to play with. Really, Potter’, he turned to Harry, ‘I was pretty bummed when you tricked Father into releasing him. The house was a lot more boring afterwards. I miss the little guy.’

‘This is way too freaky’, Ron ran a hand through his hair.

Draco turned to him. ‘More freaky than me spending the summer in your house?’

‘I didn’t talk to you then!’

‘Boys!’, Hermione said strongly. ‘If we’re going to work together, this has to stop. I’m not asking you to like each other, I know that’s not going to happen. But please, for the sake of everything that is as stake, please find a way to be civil to one another.’

‘Hermione’, Harry said around a smile, ‘you’re being the mom again.’

‘Well someone needs to!’, she snapped.

Now all three of the boys were watching her, smirking and smiling.

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I’m not washing your clothes.’

‘But mooooooom’, Ron whined, making her punch his shoulder.

For lack of anything better to do, she went back into the living room and sat down at the piano, playing a few notes. The instrument wasn’t perfectly tuned, and it probably hadn’t been used for years if not decades, but she played a small song, the only thing she really remembered from the lessons she took when she was younger.

Draco didn’t say anything as he took a seat next to her, and he cracked his fingers before taking over the keyboard.

The song he played was a lot more complex, and a lot more beautiful and when Draco finished it, he smiled at her.

‘I can’t believe you’re here’, Hermione admitted.

‘Yeah’, Draco whispered. ‘But I have to.’

She shook her head.

‘But I want to’, he corrected.

And then they were interrupted by a crash from the kitchen, and Kreacher didn’t just return with Fletcher, but with Dobby too.

Who promptly freaked out upon seeing Draco.

‘Master Draco! You’re with Harry Potter now! And Master Weasley and Miss Hermione! Are you good now?’

‘Yeah’, Draco grinned. ‘I’m as good as you are!’

Dobby jumped then, straight onto Draco’s legs, hugging them tightly. Draco didn’t seem to mind, and Hermione smiled at the scene.

It was gone fast, though, when Fletcher told them where the locket was.

⃝

‘This is absolutely mental!’, Draco all but roared.

‘Calm down!’, Hermione told him sternly. ‘It will work.’

‘And let me guess, you expect me to just sit back and wait here as you kidnap three Ministry employees, transform into them and break into the bloody Ministry of Magic, to steal a bloody Horcrux?!’

‘Of course not’, Harry said easily. ‘You’re coming as well.’

‘What?’, it was Hermione’s turn to roar in anger. ‘He can’t come, we can’t take the risk of anybody seeing him-‘

‘That’s why he’ll be under the cloak.’

Harry’s words made everyone shut up. Hermione tilted her head. Draco grinned.

‘I do love that cloak.’

She sighed, because that was that.

⃝

‘You’re you again’, Draco’s voice said in the elevator, after they escaped the Dementors. ‘Potter, maybe you should take your cloak back.’

He shook his head. ‘They’ve already seen me in the courtroom. Give it to Hermione.’

‘No’, she said. ‘It’s more important for him to remain hidden.’

‘Who’s talking?’, Mary, the woman they just saved, asked in a shaky voice.

Thankfully, the elevator doors opened before they got to answer.

‘Grab my hand’, Hermione said loudly and Draco didn’t hesitate to do so, careful of remaining under the cloak. But he was close to her, so Hermione heard him snickering at the sight of Mary kissing Ron.

There wasn’t much time to comment on that, though, because then Harry was recognized, and they were running to the fireplace. And then they were at Grimmauld’s place, but the Death Eater was there as well, and Hermione struggled to grab everyone and disappear out of there quickly.

And then Ron’s arm was splinched and he was withering in pain and there was blood on Hermione’s hands and she didn’t bother to clean it up before starting on the protection charms.

She did, however, ask Harry and Draco to start working on the tent. The boys shared an awed look, but Hermione ignored it.

⃝

They took turns trying to destroy the locket, and Hermione couldn’t stop staring at how angry Harry got as he sent spell after spell after spell.

And then Draco asked for a try, and she stared at him because of all the spells he used. Hermione didn’t even recognize half of them, and the ones she did, she knew they were old and powerful, and mostly dark magic.

‘You don’t spend a summer in a house filled with Death Eaters without picking up a thing or two.’, was all he said, and Hermione found herself forgetting.

She kept forgetting who Draco really was, what he has been through, what he was going through now.

And then Ron made a comment, interrupting her thoughts, and Hermione didn’t like what Ron was thinking. It was not a good sign, that he started doubting Dumbledore. Harry stalked off, and that wasn’t a good sign either, so she followed him and they quickly got into a fight.

⃝

When Hermione went back inside the tent with the locket, Draco took it from her and put it.

‘You and Potter are awfully loud’, he whispered playfully.

He also kissed her cheek on the way out, and Hermione was too startled to do or say anything. Thankfully, Ron had his back turned and didn’t see.

⃝

They were all listening to the radio late one night. Ron was the only one actually interested in the show, because it was his brothers doing it, and also in fear of hearing his family’s names on the death lists.

‘I’ll let you know if I hear anything’, he told Draco.

‘You won’t’, the blonde snorted. ‘My parents are Death Eaters. You won’t hear their names on Potter Watch.’

‘But Fred and George know you’re with us’, Harry said.

‘I’ve been thinking’, Hermione said slowly, voicing a thought which had been keeping her awake in the past nights. ‘We should think of a way to send a message. To Fred and George.’

‘What message?’, Harry frowned.

‘For one, that we’ll alright. They’ve heard about what happened at the Ministry, we should let them know we’re alive. And it might help everyone’s state of mind, to know we’re not just in hiding, to know that we’re doing something.’

‘We can’t tell them what we’re doing’, Harry pointed out.

‘Of course not, but we should tell them something. And…’

‘What?’, Harry prompted when she didn’t continue.

Hermione looked to Draco. ‘They should know you’re with us.’

‘No’, Draco frowned. ‘They should know I’m in the Order’s custody.’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so, not anymore. The thing is, you _are_ with us, and you’re going to be with us untill the end.’

He nodded, reassuring her even if she hadn’t asked for it.

‘But, think about it. We’re going to have to fight, at some point. Nobody is saying it, but we’re all thinking it. It’s a war, there will be more battles. And it’ll help if everyone knew you’re on our side.’

‘But-‘, Draco tried.

‘It’ll help’, Hermione said strongly. ‘Because if they think you’re still with Voldermort, they won’t hesitate in killing you and I won’t stand for that.’

‘You’re right’, Harry said easily. ‘You are, Hermione, but… how are we supposed to send a message without disclosing our location?’

‘Are you sure?’, Draco asked.

‘You have an idea?’, Harry was surprised, and so was Hermione.

‘I have an owl’, Draco breathed out. ‘It’s untraceable with some very dark, obscure magic.’

‘And you’re just telling us now?’, Ron asked, incredulously.

‘She’s at the Manor, we can’t use her every day’, Draco pointed out. ‘Maybe if I call her once it will go unnoticed, but it’s still risky.’

‘I think it’s a chance we should take’, Hermione argued. ‘We’ll move right after we send the letter and we’ll make sure they don’t write back.’

‘I’m writing a letter for Ginny’, Harry said, not leaving any room for discussion.

‘I’ll explain everything with Draco’, Hermione added.

‘I’ll write to Fred and George’, Ron said excitedly.

‘I’ll call Persephone.’, Draco said, making everyone stare at him.

He blushed, slightly. ‘I was 11, shut up!’

Hermione laughed, for the first time it what seemed like years. Harry and Ron followed soon, and Draco pouted. It was quite adorable.

⃝

Fred’s voice was more excited than it had ever been, and it brought a massive grin to Ron’s face.

> _Tonight is a very special edition on Potter Watch, dear listeners, because for the first time in weeks, we have excellent news, straight from the source! Harry Potter himself!_
> 
> _Yes, dear listeners, Harry has managed to send us a message! He’s not sitting idly, of course. Granted, he didn’t tell us exactly what he is working on, but he is working on something to fight the Dark Lord, when the time comes. His partners in crime are with him, good’ol Ron Weasley and the gorgeous miss Hermione Granger._
> 
> _I don’t know about you all, but we here at Potter Watch have faith in this trio. If you’re listening, guys, we really wish we could help. We all do._
> 
> _But that’s not all, listeners. The shocking news is yet to come!_
> 
> _I admit, this isn’t news to us. We’ve known this from quite some time, since the moment Dumbledore died. So please, trust us that this is real, that we haven’t been cursed by Death Eaters and that, no matter how impossible it seems, this is the unedited truth, as we’ve always proud ourselves for delivering here at Potter Watch._
> 
> _Listeners. Draco Malfoy has switched sides. I repeat, Draco Malfoy is fighting this war on our side. During last year, he went to Dumbledore for help, and he did not try to kill Dumbledore. The plan has always been for Dumbledore to die, as horrible as that sounds, but Draco never once raised his wand on Dumbledore._
> 
> _Since then, you have known that Draco has been in the Order’s custody. That was a lie, Draco was in the Order’s **protection**. I should know, he spent the summer at my house! And now, he’s with Harry. Together with Hermione and Ron, they’re all fighting the fight against the Dark Lord._
> 
> _This is the truth, my friends. I swear on my wand._
> 
> _Draco Malfoy is fighting alongside us._
> 
> _If you don’t believe me, that’s your decision. But you should trust Harry’s judgment, he wouldn’t have let Draco join him if he wasn’t certain of Malfoy’s allegiance to the cause. You should also trust Hermione because there is no way in Heaven or Hell that anybody will ever trick the brightest witch of her generation._
> 
> _Draco, we here at PotterWatch welcome you to the good side of things. It’ll be our honor to fight alongside you, because, honestly now, there’s nothing better than a strong redemption story. All is well when all is well in the Prince’s castle.`_
> 
> _In honor of this news, the next password is “Slytherin”._

‘Well he let it on a bit thick, didn’t he?’, Draco drawled out when the transmission was over.

‘I think that bit’, Hermione frowned, ‘about the Prince’s castle. I think that was about your parents.’

‘Probably’, Ron nodded. ‘We always used to call you Prince Arse.’

Draco glared, but it was gone soon. ‘Mother is strong’, he said in a lowered voice. ‘She can handle Voldermort.’

‘What about your dad?’, Harry asked, and it was the wrong thing to say, because Draco’s face closed off.

‘I don’t care that much anymore’, he finally said. ‘He doesn’t really deserve it, does he?’

Thankfully, neither Harry nor Ron answered anything to that, so the subject dropped.

⃝

When Ron left, Hermione was furious and devastated.

She ran back to the tent and cried, and thankfully, Harry held Draco back from coming after her. She didn’t think she could handle either of them right then.

Still, she heard them. Later, when her sobs have turned to sniffles, she heard Harry’s curious voice.

‘Aren’t you going to ask? About her and Ron?’

There was a pause. ‘I want to’, Draco said. ‘But I don’t think she’ll appreciate you talking about her business like that.’

‘True’, Harry said easily. ‘But you’re curious.’

Draco didn’t really answer that. ‘I am going to ask about you and her, though.’

Harry obviously bristled at that. ‘What about Hermione and me?’

‘Everybody knows she and Weasley had a thing. And it seemed to die down when he hooked up with that nuisance of a girl. But you and her… I always thought you two would end up together.’

Harry laughed at that.

‘No, never.’, he finally said. ‘I love Hermione to death, and she will always be my sister. But that’s it.’

‘Really?’, Draco asked, highly skeptical.

‘Oh yeah’, Harry seemed a lot lighter. ‘We’re both single children, even though I did grow up with my cousin, but uh it didn’t really count for much, I was always lonely. She was as well, even if she’ll never say it out loud. We understand each other very well on this level. It’s something Ron could never really comprehend.’

There was a pause before Harry went on. ‘Kids don’t like it when someone is smarter than them. And Hermione is the smartest one there is. She grew up alone. And it really wasn’t that different at Hogwarts, was it? But at least she had us.’

‘Is he jealous?’, Draco asked next. ‘Just now. Is Weasley jealous?’

‘If he’s jealous of me, then he’s more stupid than I thought. If he’s jealous of someone else… you tell me.’

Of course, Draco didn’t answer that. He couldn’t, could he? Not when everything he had done was done in private, as much privacy as you could have with living in a tent with four people.

But he has done things, Hermione noticed them all.

Ever since he kissed her cheek a couple of weeks ago, he kept doing it. Every other day, when they found themselves alone. Always on the cheek and always running away afterwards. And when they were with Harry and Ron, Draco would still do things, smiles sent her way, fugitive touches, seemingly innocent.

Hermione had no idea what it all meant, and she was too afraid to analyze it.

‘He’ll come back’, Draco finally said. ‘He cares about you and Hermione more than he cares about his ego.’

‘I hope so’, Harry sighed, before pausing for a couple of seconds. ‘That’s the first time you said her name.’

Draco chuckled. ‘Don’t think too much, Potter. You’ll set your brain on fire.’

⃝

Hermione felt very silly dancing with Harry in the empty tent, a song neither of them knew coming softly from the radio. But it felt good, goofing around with Harry, and it reminded her of the conversation she heard a while ago.

‘So I’m your sister, huh?’

Harry just raised an eyebrow and twirled her again, bringing her closer by the end of it.

‘Till our dying breath’, he said sternly. ‘No matter what and no matter how sooner that’ll come.’

Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist, pushing her face to his chest and stopped the dancing alltogether. Harry accommodated her quickly, with his hands around her shoulders and his cheek pressed to her hair.

‘We’re still doing the right thing, aren’t we?’

‘I wouldn’t be here if we weren’t’, he responded quickly. ‘And I know you wouldn’t be here either.’

‘You’re right’, Hermione nodded, gathering strength from him. ‘I know you’re right.’

‘I’m always right’, Harry said without missing a beat, making her snort.

They just stood like that for a while, until they were interrupted by Draco coming back inside the tent.

‘Am I interrupting something?’

‘Of course not’, Harry told him, before letting go of Hermione. He kissed her cheek and winked at her, told her to get some rest and that he’ll take the next watch.

‘Were you two dancing?’, Draco asked when Harry was gone.

Hermione nodded. ‘He’s ridiculous, sometimes.’

‘Well, do you wish to dance with me?’, Draco went as far as wiggling his eyebrows. ’I bet I’m a better dancer than Potter.’

‘Some other time, maybe’, Hermione told him softly. ‘We should really get to bed.’

Draco nodded, but he still winked at her and said ‘You might wanna rephrase that, Granger. You’re giving me ideas’.

Hermione rolled her eyes and punched his shoulder before silently making her way to bed.

⃝

‘He knows now’, Draco said once they escaped Godric’s Hollow. ‘He knows that I’m with you. And he knows you have the locket.’

‘He knew that before’, Hermione pointed out. ‘He knew since we took it.’

‘Yes, but now he knows that it wasn’t destroyed yet.’

‘He feels it’, Harry said. ‘When a Horcrux is destroyed. But yeah, now he knows about you. Do you… do you think he’ll hurt your parents?’

Draco shrugged. ‘Hurt, no. He’s doing plenty of that already. He might kill them, but they’re pure bloods, so maybe not.’

‘I’m sorry’, Hermione said in the silence that followed.

Draco glared at her. ‘I knew what I was getting into, Granger. Stop apologizing for things that are not in your control.’

‘I still feel sorry’, she argued gently.

‘Yes, for me. You feel sorry _for me_.’, Draco pointed out. ‘I don’t like it.’

 _What else should I feel for you?_ , Hermione thought, fighting against herself to swallow down the words.

‘What now?’, Harry said. Nobody answered.

⃝

Draco stared for a long, long while, at Harry’s broken wand. But he didn’t say anything about it, even if Hermione saw him thinking.

‘You’re hiding something’, she whispered to him a while after Harry went outside to keep watch for the first part of the night.

‘Of course not’, came the quick response.

‘I know you well enough by now to know when you’re lying, Draco. And I didn’t forget, that Dumbledore talked to you privately after we set the plan.’

Draco didn’t say anything, but he got out of his cot and made his way to Hermione’s. She wordlessly made room for him, both of them sitting cross legged in front of the other.

‘You really are the brightest witch I’ll ever meet’, he whispered first, mindful of Harry being just outside.

Hermione shook her head.

‘I can’t tell you’, he whispered next. ‘Dumbledore made me swear I wouldn’t tell you or Potter until the time is right.’

‘I hate it’, Hermione whispered fervently. ‘All this not knowing, this blindly stumbling, I hate it.’

‘I know’, Draco grabbed a hold of her hands. ‘Have you read the book Dumbledore left you?’

‘Yes, but what am I supposed to take from it?’

‘What’s your favorite story from it?’

Hermione didn’t understand why that mattered, but she answered truthfully. ‘The one about the three brothers.’

‘The Deathly Hallows’, Draco nodded like he was expecting it. ‘That’s what they’re called. We already have one.’

‘No’, Hermione frowned. ‘Harry’s cloak is just an ordinary-‘

Draco smiled, shaking his head. ‘I’ve had a lot of invisibility cloaks over the years. The magic is always faulty, they wear off after a couple of months.’

‘Oh’, Hermione breathed out, her brain working a mile a minute.

‘Why were you staring at Harry’s wand?’, she asked next, and Draco hesitated in answering.

‘When a wizard is killed’, Hermione thought out loud, ‘his wand goes to the one who killed him.’

‘Yes’, Draco said slowly, ‘but… that also happens when wizards are disarmed.’

‘So Dumbledore’s wand is yours, not Snape’s.’

‘Dumbledore was very insistent on that happening. I don’t know why, and I can’t tell you much else.’

‘Draco!’, Hermione all but yelled after a beat. ‘Is Dumbledore’s wand The Elder Wand?’

‘I don’t know’, he admitted. ‘But I know wands are going to be very important, sooner or later. And I know that Potter’s wand breaking, that complicates things.’

‘It has a twin’, Hermione told Draco, because she realized he didn’t know. ‘The core, it’s the same as Voldermort’s wand. The core feathers came from Dumbledore’s phoenix.’

Draco’s jaw dropped at that. ‘Bloody hell’, he whispered. ‘They were always going to end up here, weren’t they?’

Despite herself, Hermione smiled. ‘It’s quite interesting, actually. There was a prophecy.’

‘I know of it’, he said. ‘I heard Father talking about it.’

‘Right’, Hermione nodded. ‘So you know it didn’t mention Harry by name. It just said a boy born in the end of July, from parents who had thrice defied Voldermort.’

Draco frowned, understandably so.

‘There was another boy’, Hermione said. ‘Another… option.’

‘Who?’

‘Neville.’, she smiled.

Again, Draco’s jaw dropped, but his eyes gave away a slight distrust.

‘He’s a lot more than you think’, Hermione argued. ‘He has helped us a lot over the years, and he’s smart and brave and-‘

‘Okay’, Draco said easily. ‘I don’t doubt it, I just… Things would have been very different with Longbottom as the Chosen One.’

Hermione agreed to that wholeheartedly, but didn’t find anything else to say.

Draco squeezed her fingers, reminding her they were still in his hold.

‘We should get some rest’, he said gently, bringing her fingers to his lips and kissing them gently.

‘Why do you keep doing that?’, she found herself asking, blushing furiously afterwards.

Draco smiled. ‘I can’t help it.’

And then Harry was calling for them, Ron was there, holding Gryffindor’s sword, and the locket was destroyed.

Finally, something good.

⃝

Draco made Hermione read the story of the three brothers out loud, one day when after they had lunch.

After that, Hermione recalled all the places in which she has seen the mark of the Deathly Hallows before.

‘It keeps popping up’, she sighed, finally.

‘I saw it before all this’, Harry startled everyone. ‘Xenofilius Lovegood was wearing it as a pendant at the wedding.’

‘Do you think he knows more about it?’, Ron frowned.

‘Isn’t he a bit mad?’, Draco frowned.

‘He’s not so bad’, Harry shook his head. ‘We should go see him.’

‘It’s settled then’, Hermione straightened up.

⃝

Luna wasn’t there, and the house looked bad. So did Luna’s father. Draco kept throwing him odd looks, and he whispered, to Hermione, that he’s seen Xenofillius before, and he has never been like this.

He also didn’t seem at all surprised that Draco was with them. Still, he answered all of their questions, even if Hermione thought it didn’t help them much.

As they tried to leave, Xenofillius stopped them. When he screamed, Draco planted himself in front of Hermione, his back colliding with her chest.

‘They took Luna’, Mr. Lovegood said, and Hermione’s heart broke.

‘But it’s really you they want’, he said next, and Hermione’s heart dropped.

‘Who took her, sir?’, Harry asked slowly.

‘Voldermort’, as soon as he said the word, Death Eaters were upon them.

Draco pushed Hermione to the floor, shielding her body with his as the house crumpled around them. They managed to apparate in the forest, but snatchers got to them.

They ran and ran, but it was no use. Hermione managed to jinx Harry, making his face unrecognizable. Ron was with them, but she didn’t see Draco anywhere.

But he was all she could think about, when the snatchers brought them to Malfoy Manor. As Bellatrix sent Harry and Ron to the dungeons, and Narcissa was staring at Hermione.

And then Bellatrix was throwing curses straight at her.

She cried. She begged. She swore that she didn’t take the Gryffindor sword from Bellatrix’s vault.

And then the witch started writing that awful word on her arm, slicing the skin open.

Hermione screamed and screamed and screamed.

‘Get off her, you lunatic!’

She thought she imagined Draco’s voice, but she didn’t. He was there, hatred in his eyes, glaring at his aunt, wand pointed at her, ignoring his mother’s scream in the background.

‘Sweetheart’, Bellatrix said gently, but she was cut off by Draco’s yell of _expelliarmus_. She looked at him, shocked, but he didn’t waver, sneering out a _crucio_.

Bellatrix fell to the floor next to Hermione, and this time she was the one screaming.

Draco ran to her side, and pushed her away from Hermione with two kicks to the stomach, quickly wrapping her hands and legs in magical shackles.

‘You will never touch her again’, he growled in Bellatrix’s face, ‘or I will make sure you never touch _anything_ again.’

He turned to Hermione next, staring at the bloodied word on her arm, and she wanted to reassure him she was alright, but she could only say two words. ‘The boys.’

‘Safe.’, he said strongly.

‘Draco!’, Narcissa’s voice echoed in the room, Lucius following it with a more stern ‘Son’.

Draco looked devastated when he turned to his parents, but that didn’t stop him from disarming them and taking their wands.

‘Mother’, he said desperately. ‘Come with me.’

‘Are you mad, boy?’, Lucius roared, all but running to Draco, grabbing a hold of his robes. ‘What have you done, you ungrateful bastard? You-‘

Draco punched him in the face, Lucius falling to the floor with blood pouring out of his nose.

He turned to his mother again, disgusted and angry. ‘You stood there and watched your sister _carve_ her.’

‘I have no choice’, the woman was crying.

‘You have a choice now!’, Draco yelled. ‘Come with me!’

Narcissa didn’t answer, but Hermione saw it in her eyes. Draco must have seen it too, because he cursed under his breath.

‘Remember this, mother’, he said, kneeling down next to Hermione. ‘Remember this, for it is truly the moment I escaped your hold.’

He took Hermione’s hand and together, they apparated. She didn’t know where she was, just that there was wet sand under her fingers, that Ron and Luna were standing a few feet away and that Draco was holding her tightly, apologizing over and over again.

‘I’m sorry’, he breathed into her hair. ‘I’m so sorry, Hermione. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

She cried, but she wrapped her uninjured arm around him and let him hold her until they both settled down.

And then Harry was there, kissing her forehead, telling her that Dobby saved them and that he died for it, and then Ron was pulling all three of them up, leading them up the hill to a house.

‘It’s safe’, he said. ‘Bill’s and Fleur’s now.’

Hermione couldn’t stop crying.

⃝

Her head was spinning. There were too many wands on the table in front of her, Harry said he saw Voldermort taking The Elder Wand from Dumbledore’s grave, Luna was thinner than ever and she couldn’t look anyone in the eye, Olivander was weak, the goblin was set on tricking them, Hermione was certain.

Harry was mourning Dobby even though he tried to hide it, and Draco was incredibly angry, even though he tried to hide it.

‘Why must you lot _always_ think of such stupid plans?’, Draco said gravely, rubbing at his eyes.

‘Do you have a better one?’, Ron drawled out.

‘We need the Horcrux’, Harry said for the millionth time. ‘And Hermione got a hair of Bellatrix’s. Griphook is willing to help and-‘

‘And I’m going’, Draco said strongly. ‘You want to go be idiots, fine! But I’m coming with you. It’s your choice how, I’m sure you’ll think of something ridiculous and overly dangerous.’

His quite violent rant was followed by silence, but that was broken by Luna giggling.

His head snapped to her. ‘What?’

‘Oh, it’s just wonderful’, she said airily. ‘We all heard the Potter Watch episode in which they said you changed your allegiance, and even though we believed it, it’s truly wonderful to see it.’

Draco had no answer to that, but he didn’t really look away from Luna either.

‘How are things at school?’, Harry asked, making Luna’s face fall completely.

‘You shouldn’t trouble yourself with that, Harry. You have a job to do and they’re… They’re strong. They can handle it.’

‘Who’s they?’, Ron asked.

‘Neville and Ginny started the DA again. It is helping. And most of the teachers are on our side.’ She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter, Harry, really. They can handle themselves if it means you find a way to defeat him.’

‘Damn it’, Draco whispered. ‘We’re breaking into Gringotts while there are Death Eaters at Hogwarts.’

‘It’s what we’re supposed to do’, Hermione said in a small voice, making Draco’s eyes lock with hers.

She couldn’t look at him for too long.

⃝

‘Well, Auntie’, Draco drawled out, ‘you look beautiful.’

He looked like he swallowed a lemon, though, and Hermione could relate. Being in Bellatrix Lestrange’s body was not something she could stomach either.

But, as always, there was no time to dwell on these things. They had a bank to rob.

⃝

‘Anybody have any ideas?’, Hermione drawled out as they were hiding in a nook, a dragon roaring below them and Gringott’s guards sending spells their way.

‘You’re the brilliant one, Hermione’, Ron sounded very annoyed.

Draco grabbed a hold of her arm, digging his fingers in almost painfully. ‘The broom. Dumbledore’s broom.’

She started rummaging through her bag for it, but she still had to say it.

‘How is that going to help, though? It can’t carry all four of us.’

‘You said you felt power’, Draco said. ‘Maybe…’

It was worth a shot, so Hermione easily gave Draco the Nimbus.

He gasped as his fingers wrapped around it, and out of nowhere, there was a gust of wind that hit him straight in the face. The broom was glowing faintly, and Draco started to grin.

His fingers tightened on the broom, and he didn’t even say anything, but Hermione watched in fascination as the broom grew and grew until it was big enough to easily hold the four of them.

Hermione snapped out of her shock and casted a _protego_ charm around the corner, shielding them from the spells.

‘It won’t hold for long.’

‘Maybe you should let me steer’, Harry told Draco. ‘I’m a better-‘

‘No, Potter’, Draco cut him off, ‘You’re not and it responds to me.’

He mounted the broom and Hermione didn’t hesitate in settling herself behind him, with Ron at her back and Harry at the end.

‘How are we gonna get past them?’, Ron said.

‘I have an idea’, Hermione breathed out, ‘but it’s mad!’

‘Just how we like them!’, Draco all but shrieked, taking off without another word.

It was a mad idea, but it worked. Hermione set the dragon free while Draco ran in circles around it, dodging the spells the guards were still sending their way.

As the dragon wrecked everything in his way to get outside, they were close on its tail. Miraculously so, they were able to escape and as they breached to the surface, Hermione casted a charm around them, so that the muggles wouldn’t see them.

She felt exhausted after that.

‘I really hate flying’, she said. Harry and Ron laughed, of course, adrenaline still going high and delighted by what they had just pulled off.

Draco felt probably the same, because he whooped and increased speed. Hermione whined, letting go of the broom in order to wrap her arms around Draco’s waist, holding on for dear life. She pushed her cheek to his back and shoved her hands in the pockets of the jacket he was wearing.

He didn’t seem to mind, considering he patted her hands through the material.

‘Comfortable?’, Draco asked, sounding incredibly smug.

‘I hate you’, came Hermione’s quick response.

He snorted. ‘Do you really?’

Of course not, Hermione thought. That was as far away from the truth as it could get. She didn’t say it out loud, she just rubbed her cheek against his back and sighed, deeply.

⃝

‘We can’t just break into Hogwarts’, Hermione wailed. ‘We need a plan!’

‘When have any of our plans actually worked?’, Harry said, sarcasm high. ‘We plan, we get there, all Hell breaks loose.’

‘He’s right’, Ron and Draco said at the same time, sharing a long, awkward look afterwards.

‘Snape’s Headmaster now and he’s probably surrounded by Death Eaters’, Ron said next. ‘We can’t just walk in there.’

‘We’ll go to Honeydukes’, Harry said quickly. ‘Take the secret passage in the cellar.’

‘Secret passage?’, Draco yelped.

‘There’s seven of them’, Hermione pointed out, making him glare at her.

‘Well that would have helped when I was dating Pansy’.

Hermione pulled a face, and Harry clapped his hands, brining their attention back, talking about how Voldermort’s thoughts were different, about how he felt more dangerous.

She listened to Harry speaking, but she was still shivering. Despite the salve she rubbed on her hands, she was still so immensely cold.

Draco grabbed her hand, frowning in concern afterwards. ‘You’re freezing.’

Hermione shook her head. ‘I can’t… I don’t know.’

‘We should wait till nightfall’, Draco said, turning to Harry and Ron.

‘Right’, Harry nodded. ‘We’ll put up wards.’

He dragged Ron away and Draco didn’t wait, he lowered himself to the ground, pulled Hermione across his lap and hugging her tightly. He also rummaged in her bag, coming up with two blankets and wrapped them around her as well.

She was grateful for the warmth and she was grateful for the feeling that exploded in her chest. Hermione felt safe, in Draco’s arms, even if she knew, logically, that she was anything but.

The world was burning around them, but just for a while, just for a little while, she soaked in this strange feeling of comfort, brought on by Draco’s arms, by his chest moving against her, by his fingers running through her wet hair.

‘We’re close to the end’, she whispered. ‘I can feel it.’

‘I know’, he moved his head until he could press his cheeks to hers. ‘Don’t break down on me just yet, yeah, Granger? We need you now more than ever.’

‘I know’, she smiled. ‘We need each other.’

‘I might need you more than the rest’. Draco said is so lowly, she barely heard it. It made Hermione’s heart flutter, and this time, it was her that kissed his cheek.

‘Thank you’, she said when she pulled away. ‘I’m okay now.’

Draco smiled at her, eyes not meeting hers, and helped her to her feet.

⃝

When Draco realized that it was Aberforth Dumbledore helping them in Hogsmeade, he gasped and took a step back, drawing the old man’s attention to him.

‘So it’s true then. What they said on the radio. You really have switched sides.’

‘I’m sorry’, was Draco’s quick response.

‘What for?’, Aberforth raised an eyebrow. ‘You weren’t the one to kill my brother. And from what I understood, he wanted to die when he did.’

Draco didn’t say anything, looking away, and Harry picked up the conversation. It was a fight, really, that hurt Hermione because she knew that Aberforth was right. Harry knew it too, but he didn’t care. She supposed that by this point, it didn’t really matter.

When Neville came out from behind the painting, Hermione said his name feeling a weight lifted off her chest. Seeing him smile, even through the bruises and cuts, she felt hope.

For the first time, she felt hope.

⃝

The Room of Requirement was a mess. A happy mess, because everyone was so very happy to see Harry. Hope, Hermione realized, was more important that Voldermort gave it credit.

Just as she noticed that there were even a couple of Slytherins there, one of them jumped at a stunned Draco, hugging him tightly.

‘I’m so glad to see you’, the boy said, which Hermione recognized at Blaise Zabini.

Draco pushed him away. ‘What are you doing here? I thought…’, he trailed off.

‘Thought I was safe because I was a Slytherin pure blood?’, he raised a condescending eyebrow. ‘I was, until I refused to practice the cruciatus curse on first years.’

Draco swore, strongly and filthy, and hugged Zabini again. Hermione smiled.

⃝

When Hermione stepped into the Great Hall with Ron, Draco, Luna, Dean and the Order, there were gasps all over the students.

But everyone heard the Carrows let out an enraged ‘Malfoy’. She cheered, when they fell down, and when McGonagall fought Snape, because he still needed to keep his cover.

A small girl started screaming. Draco fell to the ground, clutching at his left forearm. A second girl screamed.

Voldermort spoke.

_You have one hour._

‘What are you waiting for?’, Pansy yelled. ‘Someone grab him.’

Everyone heard Draco’s very, very deep and annoyed groan. And then Filch came running in, and McGonagall pointed her wand at Pansy.

‘Lead Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin House from the hall.’

Filch asked where to, and McGonagall smirked. ‘The dungeons will do.’

Every other house cheered, but Draco all but ran to McGonagall’s side, and he screamed to be heard over the noise.

‘Professor, some of them might like to stay behind and fight.’

McGonagall stared at Draco, and unreadable expression on her face.

‘He’s right’, some boy from the Slytherin group said, and there were a couple more voices backing him up.

‘Very well.’, McGonagall finally said. ‘The rest of you, leave now.’

In the end, there were only six Slytherins left. Hermione recognized Zabini and Nott, but the rest of weren’t in their year. But they were all standing around Draco, watching him with something close to pride in their eyes.

And before they were escorted out, there was a young Slytherin girl who all but ran to Draco, hugging his waist tightly. She was a small thing, second or third year, and Draco was very startled and surprised by the sign of affection. Still, he patted her hair and kissed her hands, assuring her that everything was going to be alright.

And then, there was chaos.

Still, Draco found Hermione and he was speaking fast and loud, but she still understood the brilliance in his idea. Harry agreed. So he took Ron to look for Ravenclaw’s diadem, and Hermione and Draco headed to the Chamber of Secrets.

⃝

‘You speak parseltongue?’, Hermione was in awe.

‘It was interesting to learn’, Draco shrugged, unperturbed, before grabbing her hand and taking her into the Chamber.

He also insisted she should be the one to destroy the Horcrux they got from Bellatrix’s vault. She did so, and what happened next was terrifying.

An inhuman roar echoed in the chamber and all the water lifted up, Voldormort’s face heading towards them. Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her away, once again shielding her body with his.

He was soaked in water, whereas she was just slightly wet. He also had his arms around her shoulders, looking down at her with something very strong in his eyes.

‘Hermione, we’re most likely to die tonight.’

‘I know’, she breathed in, the sound of her name on his lips making her heart skip a beat.

‘I have to do this’, he whispered. ‘Just in case.’

Hermione nodded. ‘Just in case.’

She closed her eyes, waiting for Draco’s lips to touch hers. And they did. Gently, sweetly, his lips moved against hers, as his arms tightened his hold on her.

It didn’t last very long, but it was more than Hermione needed. It was what she wanted, had been wanting for months now, she just wished they weren’t where they were, they hadn’t done what they’d done, they weren’t supposed to do what they were supposed to so.

‘Just in case’, Draco said again, whispered really, smiling softly.

Hermione returned it and pulled out the Marauder’s map to find Harry and Ron.

⃝

They got to the Room of Requirement just as Harry and Ron were running out of it, a fire roaring inside.

Draco just yelled Harry’s name, but he seemed to understand, because he threw the diadem at Draco’s feet. He stabbed it with a fang and kicked in back into the room, just as the door was closing. Still, they all saw the fire taking the shape of Voldermort’s scream.

When she turned around, Hermione saw that Harry was shaking, leaning heavily against the wall.

‘You were right, Malfoy’, he panted. ‘It’s the snake. She’s the last one.’

‘Look inside him, Harry’, Ron said, arguing that they needed to know where Voldermort was.

‘I got him’, Harry said after a while. He turned to Draco. ‘Your father’s here.’

Draco shook his head, grabbing a hold of Hermione’s hand.

‘Please don’t expect me to be able to kill him. Or my mother.’

‘Nobody is-‘, Hermione tried.

‘I’ll stop them, though’, Draco interrupted. ‘You have my word that I’ll stop them.’

Harry shook his head. ‘Let’s go. He’s summoned Snape to him.’

⃝

The run to the dock were the worst moments of Hermione’s life. She was running as fast as she could, chaotically throwing spells left and right, Draco was behind her.

She saw Lavender Brown's body as Greyback drank from her and she didn’t hesitate in hexing him out the window. She heard four and fifth years yelling unforgettable curses. She saw monsters and Death Eaters and monsters, so many monsters.

Hogwarts was in flames. Hogwarts was in ruins. Their home was being ruined.

And Hermione couldn’t even stop to catch her breath.

⃝

‘You have your mother’s eyes’, Snape told Harry after giving him his tears. Then, the professor turned to Draco and called his name.

‘Are you in pain?’, was what Draco asked when he took Harry’s place by Snape’s side.

He shook his head slowly. ‘I’m sorry’.

‘Don’t, professor.’, Draco was quick to say. ‘Thank you, for all the years in which you have taken care of me. I apologize for not appreciating it sooner.’

Snape tried to take a deep breath, but he didn’t succeed.

‘I promise you’, Draco said next, ‘that the world will know the truth. About what you have done in the last year, about what you have done since Voldermort died the first time. You have my word.’

Snape didn’t manage to say anything else. Draco closed his eyes, allowing himself a few seconds to cry.

They were cut off by Voldermort’s voice.

⃝

There were so many dead in the Great Hall‚ Hermione couldn’t even count them.

And then she saw Tonks and Lupin. And then she saw Ron collapse on Fred’s body. And she remembered all the bodies that were still outside.

And she couldn’t take it, she turned around fully intending to run out of the hall, but Draco was there, holding her, holding her tightly, shushing her gently. He lifted her up like she weighted nothing, and didn’t let go of her, not even when they were sitting on the stairs outside of the Great Hall.

Ron joined them after a while. He sat down on Hermione’s other side, and grabbed her other hand.

Together, they grieved and prayed that Harry wouldn’t do anything stupid.

⃝

Ron got angry, instantly, when Harry said that he was going to the forest. Hermione stopped him, because she had a feeling and because Draco was looking very strongly at Harry.

‘There’s a reason I can hear the Horcruxes’, Harry told Hermione. ‘I think I’ve known for a while. And I think you have too.’

She did. She realized he was a Horcrux in Godric’s Hallow, but she had been too afraid to say the words out loud. She had hoped she was wrong.

‘You’re not coming with me’, Harry said next. ‘You need to kill the snake. You kill the snake, he kills me, and then it’s just _him_.’

Hermione hugged him then, tightly, crying into his shoulder.

‘You’re a moron, Potter’, a cold voice said, startling them both.

Draco marched up to Harry with fury in his eyes, but he gently pushed Hermione a step away.

‘You forgot something and I haven’t told you something yet.’, Draco stated, fairly angry.

‘What are you-‘, Harry tried.

‘Snape was the one to kill Dumbledore, but _I_ was the one to disarm him. The Elder Wand wasn’t Snape’s. He died for nothing, because if Voldermort wanted the wand to respond to him, he should have killed _me_.’

Harry’s eyes went wide.

Draco pulled out his wand. ‘Dumbledore wouldn’t let me tell you this before. But now, you need to disarm me. Do it!’

Harry did, albeit reluctantly. They both kept their respective wands afterwards, but Harry’s _expelliarmus_ hit Draco properly.

‘And you’re an idiot’, Draco told Harry strongly. ‘You forgot about the snitch.’

‘I didn’t’, Harry was angry. ‘I blew air on it and it just said _I open at the close_ , it didn’t help me with anything.’

‘Because you weren’t prepared to die yet’, Draco stared Harry down. ‘There’s nothing more _closed_ than dying. And I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet everything that, if when you get close enough to Voldermort in the woods, you take out your snitch and tell it you’re ready to die…’

‘The Resurrection Stone’, Hermione breathed out, finally understanding.

Draco didn’t take his eyes off Harry, but he nodded. ‘The Deathly Hallows, reunited under one hand. The hand of The Chosen One.’

⃝

It was only Draco’s hand fisted into the back of her jacket that stopped Hermione from rushing forward when Voldermort said ‘Harry Potter is dead’.

‘And now is the time to declare yourself’, he said around a laugh.

Everyone heard Lucius whisper Draco’s name, and at that, there were a lot of faces turning his way.

Draco moved his hand, wrapping his fingers around Hermione’s. Voldermort saw it clearly, because his face changed into an enraged one, before settling into something unimpressed.

‘Ah, the blood traitor’, he said. ‘Yes, Draco, do come with us.’

Draco laughed. A hollow, broken laugh. ‘Not again.’

Voldermort raised his wand and sent a spell straight at Draco. Hermione was faster, and she blocked it.

‘Later’, Voldermort said after a lengthy time of staring at the two of them.

And then Neville took a step forward, and Hermione was shocked by the man he became. She remembered the conversation she had with Draco in the tent those months ago. Yes, things might have been different if Neville were The Chosen One. But not by far.

She was crying by the time Neville stopped talking.

And then she was laughing, because he pulled out the sword of Gryffindor, and because Harry was alive.

⃝

‘I’ll lure him into the castle’, Harry yelled. ‘We have to kill the snake.’

‘It’ll be my pleasure’, Draco growled, dragging Hermione and Ron away, already talking about a plan.

But the plan didn’t work. Ron dropped the basilisk fang and the snake was heading straight for Hermione. Ron grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs, but their spells weren’t doing anything and Draco was not where he should have been.

He was at the bottom of the stairs, and he was yelling for Neville. Ron pushed Hermione to the ground, and the next thing she saw was Draco killing Nagini with Godric Gryffindors's sword.

‘Get up’‚ Draco said, panting, black blood splattered all over his face. ‘They’re fighting outside.’

They made it to the courtyard just as Voldormort exploded with a horrific scream. Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, so did Ron, but Draco didn’t.

He got there just in time to catch Harry before he collapsed. Hermione ran to them, so did Ron and they all ended on the ground, in a mess of limbs, a crappy excuse for a hug, but all either of them had the strength for.

‘Children’, McGonagall said, rushing to their side. She looked wide-eyed, her hair a mess, her robes filthy.

Draco got up, using Hermione’s shoulder to steady himself. He picked the sword from where he dropped it earlier, giving it to a bewildered McGonagall.

‘Voldermort is dead’, he said evenly. ‘Once and for all. And he died by Harry Potter’s wand.’

‘Good lord’, McGonagall breathed out, before her eyes fell onto Harry, softening instantly. ‘I’ll go get Madam Pomfrey.’

‘I’m fine, Professor’, Harry said quickly, straightening himself up, slightly. ‘I’m just exhausted.’

‘We haven’t slept all year’, Hermione added.

‘Good lord!’, McGonagall said with feeling.

Draco started laughing. Hermione followed soon after, pushing her face into Harry’s chest, a hysterical laugh she couldn’t stop even if she tried.

⃝

Harry was holding the Elder Wand and looking to Draco.

‘You could take it back. It is yours.’

‘No’, Draco said quickly. ‘It was never mine, I don’t want it.’

Harry nodded, and promptly broke the wand in half, throwing it over the edge of the bridge.

He then stepped in front of Hermione, giving her a long and sweet kiss on the forehead.

Then Harry turned to Draco.

‘I’ll tell you this, and I’ll tell it to the Ministry too. Your mother helped me. She came to check if I was really dead, asked me if you were alive, and then she lied for me.’, he shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for her.’

Draco didn’t say anything, he just nodded. Hermione felt compelled to push her fingers into his palm.

Harry’s eyes skipped to their hands for a couple of seconds, before he looked up to Draco again.

‘One more thing’, he said slowly. ‘If you ever hurt Hermione, you have me, Ron, and the rest of the Weasley family to deal with.’

‘Harry!’, Hermione yelped, appalled. ‘I can take care of myself!’

‘Oh, I know that’, Harry smiled at her. ‘I’m just saying.’

Draco just grinned, as Harry dragged Ron away, leaving the two of them alone.

⃝

Hermione looked at Draco, so she saw the way he bit on his lower lip, the way he took three deep breaths, the way he closed his eyes briefly before finally turning around to look at her.

Their fingers were still intertwined, so Hermione squeezed them gently. She knew she was blushing, probably as much as Draco was.

‘So that _just in case_ wasn’t actually needed.’

‘Yes’, Draco said slowly. ‘I guess.’

He was oozing uncertainty, and so was she, probably. But Hermione took comfort in the fact that Draco didn’t deny anything when Harry cornered him, and the fact that he was still here now, holding her hand.

Hermione also took comfort in all the kisses he gave her in corners of the tent, all the stolen touches over the past months. The smiles and the late night discussions, the moments in which Draco protected her, shielding her from danger.

She remembered how he was that day in the Potions cabinet, how he was shaking under her hands. She remembered how broken he looked in the infirmary, she saw how different he looked now. A warrior, in the true sense of the word. A savior.

Draco bit on his lower lip, thoroughly distracting Hermione from anything else. She couldn’t look away, because she really wanted to be close enough to those lips to not be able to see them anymore.

‘Draco’, she breathed out. ‘Just in case, you should know that I wouldn’t mind doing it again.’

‘And again?’, he started smiling, looking at her.

‘And again’, Hermione nodded, pushing closer.

‘And again’, Draco smiled wider.

‘And again’, she grinned.

He didn’t say anything anymore, too busy with completely wrapping himself around Hermione. They were both filthy, bloodied and bruised. They were exhausted, but the war was over. There was so much left to be done in its wake, of course, but in this moment, Hermione didn’t care much.

She was in Draco’s arms, finally, like she had wished to be for so long. His fingers were under her ponytail, pushing against the heated skin there, his other hand was pulling at her waist, bringing her as close to him as she could get.

He whispered her name against her lips, and it made Hermione deepen the kiss, moving her hands from his shoulders to his hair.

Draco stopped the kiss at that, and pulled away slightly, just enough so he could look into her eyes.

‘You’re important, you know that, right? You’re important to me.’

Hermione smiled at that, and pushed on her tiptoes to kiss him again, but Draco stopped her.

‘I know I haven’t said it as much as I should have’, he went on, quickly and slightly breathlessly, ‘and I know I’m not going to say it as much as I should in the days to come. So when I screw up, I need you to remember this, Hermione. You are… stupidly important to me.’

She huffed, acting annoyed instead of letting happy tears fall down her face.

‘Why must you assume you’ll screw up?’

Draco snorted, pushing his fingers to her nape again, albeit briefly. ‘Because I know myself, and I know you, and it’s bound to happen sooner or later, babe.’

He said the nickname so easily, without pausing to think about it, before or after he said it. So Hermione didn’t pause either. She pushed at his chest, with as much force she could gather.

Draco yelped, shock written all over his features. She pushed him again, and again and again, until his back hit the bridge’s stone railing.

‘What was that for?’, he asked, still in shock and confusion.

Hermione placed her hands on his cheeks and she pushed her body flush against his.

‘You can call me that again.’, she said sternly.

Draco blinked. Twice. ‘Babe?’, it came out as a question.

Hermione kissed him again. And again. And again.


End file.
